Palestinian views of the peace process

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there are a variety of Palestinian views of the peace process. Some Palestinian leaders have said that the peace process is intended to achieve a permanent peace with the State of Israel; other Palestinians have maintained, throughout the entire process, the goal of destroying Israel. This article discusses the views held by important Palestinian figures as documented in interviews or in other sources, and by the general population as documented by polls.

The Palestinian people

Template:original research The attitude of Palestinians towards "the peace process" depends on their current social and economic circumstances. When they feel more oppressed they are more likely to support extremist organizations. Their view is that they are struggling for survival against Israeli supremacy and Zionist colonialism.

The most recent draft of the Palestinian constitution [1] by the National Committee expresses a desire to adhere to international law as set out by the United Nations and to give all peoples within its borders human and civil rights.

Many Palestinian refugees would like to return to their original homes (see right to return), often regardless of what state they would then find themselves in. Any possible peace agreement is judged in this way.

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad

The stated goal of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad is to conquer Israel and replace it with an Islamic theocracy or Islamist state. Both parties undertook a hudna (ceasefire) indirectly in support of the "Road map for peace" at the urging of then Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, effectively beginning in August 2004. In Sept 2005, Hamas was criticised by Islamic Jihad for calling off rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza.

Yasser Arafat

Acceptance of Israel's right to exist in peace was the first of the PLO's obligations in the Oslo accords. In Yasser Arafat's September 9, 1993 letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, as part of Oslo I, Arafat stated that "The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security."[2] Electronic Intifada stated that Arafat has made several calls for an end to violence and lasting peace, in both Arabic and English.[3] Arafat, who was the primary Palestinian leader until his 2004 death, had to deal with unfavorable views by many Israelis, who saw him as merely using the peace process to extract short-term concessions and merely viewing it as a stepping stone on the road to the complete destruction of the state of Israel.

The Palestine Liberation Organization

Template:Expand The PLO's 1968 policy statement, the Palestinian National Covenant was renounced by the National committee which has now amended three drafts of its national constitution calling for peaceful sovereignty over the borders respected by international law.[4]

Faisal Husseini

Faisal Husseini, former Palestinian Authority Minister for Jerusalem, was well known in Israeli circles as a Palestinian dove and moderate. He was an extremely high-ranking official who represented the most liberal faction of the Palestinian Authority. In 2000, The Los Angeles Times ran an editorial by him, "The Holy City Must Be Ruled Fairly," which states:

"No single group should be able to claim either religious or political exclusivity in Jerusalem .... Palestinians believe that Jerusalem should be a shared, open city; two capitals for two states. In our vision, East Jerusalem, as defined by the 1948-1967 borders, would be under Palestinian sovereignty, while West Jerusalem would be under Israeli sovereignty .... Creating shared administrative arrangements is especially important in the Old City of Jerusalem, as this concentrated area evokes the most passion among Jews, Christians and Muslims."

However, the following quotes come from the June 24, 2000 issue of el Arav, an Egyptian newspaper. In a taped interview with journalist Shafik Ahmed Ali he stated,"The Oslo agreements were a Trojan Horse .... The strategic goal is to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea." When asked about the intentions of Arafat and the Oslo peace deal signed in 1993, Husseini recounted the classical Greek story of the Trojan horse:

"we all know what happened afterwards. Had the US and Israel understood before Oslo that all that remained of the Palestine liberation movement and the Pan-Arab movement was the Trojan Horse named Arafat or the PLO, they would have never opened their fortified gates and let him in." Husseini stated that he told Israelis and Americans "Get on the horse and don't ask what it is made of. Get on the horse, and your entry inside will turn into the dawn of an era of building and not an era of the end of hope!"

Husseini stated that it is the obligation of all the Palestinian factions to view the peace process as only "temporary" and "gradual" steps. "We are setting an ambush for the Israelis and cheating them." He said that the final goal of the Palestinian Authority is still the "liberation of all Palestine from the river [Jordan] to the sea [Mediterranean],...[even if it takes] 1,000 years, or generations upon generations."

Other prominent Palestinians

When Sari Nusseibeh was the representative of the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem (circa 2000), he called for historic compromises by both Palestinian and Israelis in order to secure a permanent and lasting peace. For example, he stated that Palestinians must give up their claim of a Right of return. With this concession, he argued, a true and lasting peace can emerge.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on August 5, 2000, "Palestinians are no strangers to compromise. In the 1993 Oslo Accords, we agreed to recognize Israeli sovereignty over 78 percent of historic Palestine and to establish a Palestinian state on only 22 percent." Rashid Abu Shbak, a senior PA security official declared, "The light which has shone over Gaza and Jericho [when the PA assumed control over those areas] will also reach the Negev and the Galilee [which constitute a large portion of pre-1967 Israel]." (Yediot Ahronot, May 29, 1994)

The PA's Voice of Palestine radio broadcasted a Friday prayer sermon by Yusuf Abu Sneineh, official preacher at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, in which he asserted, "The struggle we are waging is an ideological struggle and the question is: where has the Islamic land of Palestine gone? Where is Haifa and Jaffa, Lod and Ramle, Acre, Safed and Tiberias? Where is Hebron and Jerusalem?" (Voice of Palestine, May 23, 1997)

PA cabinet minister Abdul Aziz Shaheen told the official PA newspaper, Al-Havat Al-Jadida on January 4, 1998, "The Oslo accord was a preface for the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Authority will be a preface for the Palestinian state which, in its turn, will be a preface for the liberation of the entire Palestinian land."

Maps and textbooks

A number of Palestinian maps are alleged to label all of the State of Israel, as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as "Palestine". Such maps appear on PA Television; in the offices of PA officials; in textbooks used in PA schools; and on the shoulder-patches of PA police officers. In 1988, when the PLO applied for admission to the World Health Organization, it used the map of all of Palestine in its application papers.

Those allegations have been partially opposed, in a study by Professor Nathan Brown of George Washington University in November 2001: On the other hand, they are supported by a report of the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace.

In Israel, some maps show the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of Israel. These include maps on Israeli government sites. [5] [6]

External links

• The Late Faisal Husseini: Oslo Is A Trojan Horse - written by Aharon Amir (2001)

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